'RoboCop' First Clip: Joel Kinnaman Fights Robots

We’ve never been all that positive on a remake of RoboCop, especially when it was apparent that the film would go for a PG-13 rating, but we’re trying to keep an open mind about it now that we’re so close to seeing it. The first clip inspires some confidence as it shows off a scene that isn’t a beat for beat steal from the original, which is rare these days. Perhaps they’ve made it their own thing.

The set up is vaguely similar, that Alex Murphy (here played by Alex Kinnaman) is a police officer converted into half man, half machine, all cop, but it looks like the mechanics of the narrative are difference. There’s no whiff of someone like Kurtwood Smith’s Clarence Boddicker, and the wife character (here played by Abbie Cornish) seems an active participant in the narrative. After some more faithful adaptations, this could be enough of its own thing to have some value. Here’s the clip:

And here we also see Jackie Earle Haley getting something to do and being a bit of a badass. Look, there’s no way they can match the brilliance of the original film, and maybe they’re not trying for that, though the film is going to weave in some familiar moments and lines because that’s how these films are made now. But maybe it’s fun. Maybe. RoboCop hits theaters February 12.

Damon worked in the film business as a Film Buyer for a theater chain for many years, which gives him an interesting perspective on the numbers. He's written for Collider, Chud, Screencrush, The DVD Journal and Binaryflix online, and was published by The New York Times and Willamette Week, along with his college, high school and middle school papers.